Mirai Kuriyama
Mirai Kuriyama (栗山 未来, Kuriyama Mirai) is the heroine of the Kyoukai no Kanata series. She is a first year student and a member of the school's Literary Club. She comes from a bloodline of Spirit World Warriors with blood-manipulation abilities. However, because this kind of ability is considered as heretical among Spirit World Warriors, she became an existence that is shunned by many. Her first name "Mirai" means "future" in Japanese. Appearance Mirai is a petite girl with light brown eyes and light brown hair with a pinkish tint, which is styled in a bob-cut with bangs that reach her eyebrows. At school, she wears a loose pink cardigan over the school uniform and black tights or similar hosiery. However, Mirai began to attire a vest-like sweater over her school uniform, identical to the color of her cardigan. Mirai wore the cardigan to conceal a bandaged wound (a gash on the right forearm in the light novels; a round wound on the right palm in the anime) which she always prepares whenever she needs to use her ability. In the light novels, she also wears a set of bracelets to secure the bandages to her wounds. She then uses a golden ring to activate her ability. . . Her most distinguishable accessory is the pair of red thick-rimmed glasses that she proceeds to adorn at all times, which she soon changes to gray for a while before she soon changes to red again. Personality Clumsy and a bit shy, Mirai rarely stands out in school. In fact, she struggles pretty much in life; she has to earn her own money to make ends meet, but her constant fear of actually encountering a Youmu used to prevent her from earning an income from slaying Youmu, which most Spirit World Warriors take on as part of their profession. To make things worse, her hobby of writing blog articles about bonsai is often ridiculed in the Internet. In contrast, Mirai is a focused Spirit World Warrior, although her clumsiness still shows on occasion. Her movements in battle demonstrate a certain degree of knowledge in how to fight, although she lacks the experience in actual combat due to her issues with Youmu encounters. After bonding with those around her, Mirai began to feel more confident about defeating Youmu and became quite the experienced Spirit World Warrior. She is fond of saying the words "How unpleasant!" (不愉快です！, "Fuyukai desu!") when agitated''. It has been shown that Mirai is not very good at lying as whenever she's saying something not very honest, she took off her glasses and clean it with a piece of cloth while avoiding looking at the person whom she talked to. History Mirai is the sole survivor of a Spirit World Warrior clan with the ability to control blood - they were able to form weapons from their blood and even use it as a spray with corrosive properties. Left without relatives, Mirai was adopted by the Inami family but kept isolated because of her powers. The family's middle daughter, Yui Inami, befriended Mirai on contravention of her family's harsh treatment of the girl. (In the anime series, Yui's sister, Sakura, becomes a second friend.) When the Hollow Shadow appeared it possessed Yui and Mirai killed her to save herself, something she has regretted ever since. This act, understandably, drew the ire of the Inami family, and especially that of Sakura. The Inami clan wanted to kill Mirai in retribution but she was taken in by Izumi Nase, who believed that her powers would be enough to kill Akihito Kanbara, a half-Youmu who was determined to be a threat to Nagatsuki City. Story (Anime Series) Mirai and Akihito meet when he sees her on the roof of his school and, thinking that she is going to kill herself, he runs to the roof to stop her. The meeting was far from pleasant for Akihito when Mirai stabs him with a sword she conjures using her blood. To her surprise he survives due to his youmu lineage. Mirai continues to hound Akihito, attacking him unexpectedly but with a continued lack of success. Mirai later reveals that she is struggling to make ends meet as a Spirit World Warrior due to her lack of experience in slaying youmu (which is a source of income for Spirit World Warriors who sell the stones that defeated youmu leave behind). With support from Akihito, Mirai manages to kill a youmu for the first time. The following day she tells Akihito to stay away from her because she has cursed blood and once killed someone. He responds by telling her that she doesn't understand anything. News soon spreads about a powerful youmu known as the Hollow Shadow approaching Nagatsuki City and Mirai quickly goes to fight it on her own despite orders that Spirit World Warriors are not to confront it. Just as she is about to engage the Hollow Shadow she is attacked by Sakura Inami, who, although lacking Spirit World Warrior ability, is determined to avenge her sister. Both Sakura and Mirai are swallowed by an illusion created by the Hollow Shadow's presence, and Mirai narrowly escapes Sakura with the help of Akihito, who pursued her after learning of her bold decision to take on the youmu single-handedly. Akihito and Mirai soon find themselves in a twisted replica of the local train yard where the youmu manifests itself in the form of Yui Inami. Mirai is almost overwhelmed with guilt, but Akihito helps her once more and she manages to defeat the youmu enough to dispel the illusions it created. However, the weakened youmu then attempts to take over Akihito's body, leaving Mirai with no choice but to stab Akihito. He survives the attack but is weakened sufficiently that his youmu half awakens and goes berserk. Seeing this transformation, she realizes what he meant when he said that they were not the two of them were not that different. With the assistance of three Spirit World Warriors, Mirai is able to quell the youmu and return Akihito to normal. He befriends Mirai and eventually convinces her to join the Literary Club. However, due to her disobeying orders during the Hollow Shadow incident, her Spirit World Warrior license is confiscated, leaving her out of action and without a source of income for the following month. Akihito helps her survive by introducing her to his senpai, Mitsuki Nase, as well as Ai and Ayaka Shindou, who agrees to give Mirai a part-time job in her shop and as a photography model. Her peaceful life, however, is disrupted once again when Sakura Inami returns and transfers into her class. The two later engage in battle once more, although Mirai defeats Sakura this time. Afterwards, the weapon Sakura has been using to supplement her lack of Spirit World Warrior powers turns against her, prompting Mirai to protect Sakura. Afterwards the two girls reconcile and even share an apartment. The peace gained by the destruction of the Hollow Shadow is only temporary though. Another threat, known as the Calm, approaches. Under the influence of the Calm, youmu are weakened and become easy prey for Spirit World Warriors. After using her powers on his human half, Izumi Nase uses the effect of the Calm to bring out Akihito's youmu form and it is revealed that he has been harboring an ultra-powerful youmu, known as Beyond the Boundary, within him and that Mirai was brought to the city for the express purpose of killing this youmu. Having developed feelings for Akihito, Mirai does not want to kill him and is told of a way to save him. She follows the advice and removes the youmu from Akihito at the cost of her own life. Akihito falls into a three month long coma and when he awakens it is revealed that Beyond the Boundary is still fighting Mirai, having created a pocket dimension. Miroku, having sacrificed himself to a youmu, wants to bring about the destruction of the world and acts to aid Beyond the Boundary. He is confronted by Izumi, Shizuku, Hiroomi, Mitsuki and Sakura who interfere in his efforts. It is revealed that Izumi also harbors a youmu within her but has retained her humanity. Elsewhere, Akihito uses a Spirit Stone to enter the pocket dimension and aids Mirai in defeating Beyond the Boundary. Having used all of her blood to remove the youmu from Akihito, its defeat means that she no longer has a body. Just before she disappears, Mirai confesses her love to Akihito. In the aftermath of this event, Izumi has disappeared for parts unknown, leaving Hiroomi as head of the Nase Clan and everything else returns to normal: Ayaka and AI return to their shop, Mitsuki continues to insult Akihito during their club activities and Hiroomi continues to harass both Akihito and his sister. Throughout it all, Akihito has kept Mirai's ring as a memento. Then one day the ring disappears from his hand and Akihito races to the roof of the school where he finds a miraculously living Mirai waiting for him. Abilities '''Hemokinesis' *Mirai was born with the ability to manipulate her blood in various ways such as shaping and solidifying it to form constructs e.g. a sword or shield. This ability is limited by her body's natural blood volume. Her blood also has corrosive properties when injected into or sprayed against an opponent, as shown in a few episodes. Swordsmanship *Miriai displays graceful swordsmanship that works around precisely defending her body by swinging her sword around her body while cutting through enemy attacks, as shown in the beginning of episode 2 and so on. Relationships Akihito Kanbara Mirai first met Akihito on the roof of the school building while trying to commit suicide. She stabs him only to find out that he is basically immortal. She goes on trying to stab him for practice until eventually they became friends. Akihito helps Mirai overcome her fear of Youmu and even though she's always complaining about how unpleasant he is, she still cares about him. In Episode 12, when Mirai is about to disappear, she thanks Akihito for allowing her to know him, and she expressed how grateful she was for the opportunity to fall in love with him, admitting her feelings for him. Sakura Inami After finding out what Mirai had done to her older sister, she began to hunt her down, planning to avenge Yui. After a battle with Mirai, Sakura came to realize that she is not a Spirit World Warrior and becomes friends with Mirai, eventually developing a bond with her. She currently lives in Mirai's apartment. She seems to care about Mirai to the point of frantically asking where she was after she disappeared and kicking Akihito hard when he didn't answer. Mitsuki Nase Mirai meets Mitsuki after Akihito introduces them to each other. Although Mitsuki was cautious of Mirai at first, she still developed a bond with her after getting to know her better and has girl talks with her from time to time. Trivia * She shares a similar appearance with Shirabe Ako, one of the main character of Pretty Cure, which was produced by Toei Animation. The two girls however, don't share the same personality. References zh:栗山未来 Category:Characters Category:Spirit World Warriors Category:Female